The encounter of the Fonbet Russian Cup group stage sixth round that was held at VTB Arena, ended in a 2:1 win for the hosts.
As Marcel Licka promised at the press conference after the match against Ural, young Stanislav Bessmertny and Ivan Lepsky appeared in the defensive line. Anton Shunin and Sergey Parshivlyuk recovered from injuries and saw their names in the starting list. The 34-year-old right-back who put the captain's armband for this match, shifted to the unusual left wing. The attacking four did not change much – only Jorge Carrascal replaced Bitello and established himself as a winger.
The first 10 minutes were dedicated to exploring the opponent's weaknesses, but then events began to develop rapidly. Denis Makarov and Carrascal interplayed great on the left wing, Jorge rolled the ball to Smolov who stayed in the center. The Russian forward made few steps to the goal but missed the target shooting low near the post. Immediately Fedor assisted on Makarov who penetrated into Pari NN penalty area and fired wide from a favorable position.
Then, the sides exchanged goals within 3 minutes. First, the visitors organized an attack by Edgar Sevikyan's efforts. The Armenian international outran Carrascal in the penalty area and curled the ball into the far corner. Soon the Colombian made things better: after Luka Gagnidze's cross, Carrascal assisted on Tyukavin in one touch who sent the ball into the Nizhny Novgorod net.
This goal became the sixth one for Kostya in the Russian Cup draws that made the young striker the best top scorer in the club's history in this tournament! Tyukavin could have registered a hat-trick in the first half, but first Ivan Kukushkin took the ball firmly after his shot from the penalty area and a little later the goalkeeper saved his team by denying the ball to the post.
Serious passions ran high at Shunin's goal. Nicholas Marichal not only won regularly in aerial duels, but also blocked twice the most dangerous strikes of Nikoloz Kutateladze and Essien Ededem. The crossbar saved Dynamo twice as well – Anton Mukhin and Ilya Kukharchuk were a little unlucky.
However, the draw was not only on the scoreboard, but also on rebounds from a goal post: Luis Chavez hit the post from 25 meters, and a little later he almost spun the ball into the far top corner from a free kick, but Kukushkin swept it to the corner. In added time, Kutateladze shot from several meters without resistance – fortunately, Parshivlyuk and Shunin saved the situation for two.
During the break, Licka decided to strengthen the defense by changing Lepsky to Fabian Balbuena. In the attack, everything was fine anyway. Tyukavin accelerated in the first minutes and rolled the ball to Smolov – Kukushkin made one more save. Makarov outran his opponent on the left wing and fired wide into the near corner.
Dynamo continued to dominate and soon took the lead ... however, only by hitting the post. It was Smolov who made an impressive solo run past three defenders and sent the ball into the crossbar. Soon after, he was substituted by Daniil Fomin, Bitello replaced Carrascal in position, while Roberto Fernandez came instead of Marichal.
Immediately, another good chance was not converted by the hosts – Makarov capitalised on a defender's mistake and rolled the ball to an empty net to Tyukavin. Nikita Kakkoyev was in the right place in right time and managed to clear the ball out the goal line. 15 minutes before the final whistle, Licka fielded Yaroslav Gladyshev instead of Tyukavin at the helm of the attack.
Dynamo spent the remainder of the game in a constant siege of Kukushkin's goal, but numerous crosses did not reach the addressees. By the end, the shots of Chavez and Makarov from the penalty area were blocked by the defenders, and yet at the last minute luck turned to our team's side. Daniil Fomin turned out to be on the right wing and crossed to the center of the penalty area, from where Gladyshev headed the ball carefully to the left top corner!
The White-Blues collected 11 points and took the second place in their group which will allow our team to compete in the RPL Path playoffs. In the next RPL match that is scheduled for November 6, Dynamo will play against Sochi on the road.